Joint ventures and alliances continue to tie ideas and initiatives together across various tiers of the wireless industry from infrastructure to Wi-Fi to semiconductors. Asian companies play crucial roles in the cooperation.
Royal Philips Electronics NV announced a joint venture with Accton Technology Corp. to provide solutions for original equipment manufacturers, retailers and consumer electronics companies.
The joint venture, which is dubbed “Arcadyan,” will emphasize audio and video quality.
“Over the next few years, Arcadyan’s advanced wireless solutions will be key enablers in the growing broadband market for devices that deliver content-rich always-on, always-connected applications,” said the companies.
As part of its $500 million fund set apart for innovative ideas in the wireless space, Intel said it has bought minority stakes in three Asian companies, which include Ipone Inc., Ocamar and Pronto networks.
These investments are in pursuit of Intel’s promotion of Wi-Fi technology. IPone is a South Korean network solution provider, Ocamar Technologies is a Chinese infrastructure company, while Pronto networks is an Indian solutions provider. Intel already has invested more than $600 million in more than 100 companies.
The alliances reached the innards of cell phones with a Texas Instruments agreement with Sharp to make reference designs for GSM/GPRS phones.
The reference designs will combine Sharp’s 1 Mega Pixel CCD camera module, flash memory and liquid crystal, together with TI’s TCS2100 chipset for GSM/GPRS cell phones and TI’s OMAP-DM270 multimedia processor, said the companies.
